225 research outputs found
Beyond Flexner: The Hunt for Medicine\u27s Elusive Social Mission
No full text21st annual Paul C. Brucker, MD lecture
Fitzhugh S. M. Mullan is Murdock Head Professor of Medicine and Health Policy, a joint position in SPHHS and the SMHS. His primary appointment is in the Department of Health Policy.
A pediatrician whose far-reaching career has included clinical, administrative and editorial responsibilities in both the public and the private sector, Dr. Mullan is also a cancer survivor and the Founding President of the National Coalition for Cancer Survivorship. Cognizant of the importance of communicating with both lay and professional audiences, Dr. Mullan is a contributing editor to Health Affairs and the editor of that journal\u27s Narrative Matters section; a prolific book reviewer; and author of a number of general-interest books, including Vital Signs: A Young Doctor\u27s Struggle with Cancer and Big Doctoring in America: Profiles in Primary Care. Prior to joining the School\u27s faculty in 1996, Dr. Mullan directed the Bureau of Health Professions in the federal Health Resources and Services Administration, earning the rank of Assistant Surgeon General.
Dr. Mullan is Director of the Department\u27s Hirsh Program in Medicine and Public Policy, which works to advance understanding of the influence of medicine and medical education on health care and public health.
Presentation: 1 hou
Testate amoeba records indicate regional 20th-century lowering of water tables in ombrotrophic peatlands in central-northern Alberta, Canada
No full textTestate amoebae are abundant in the surface layers of northern peatlands. Analysis of their fossilized shell (test) assemblages allows for reconstructions of local water-table depths (WTD). We have reconstructed WTD dynamics for five peat cores from peatlands ranging in distance from the Athabasca bituminous sands (ABS) region in western Canada. Amoeba assemblages were combined with plant macrofossil records, acid-insoluble ash (AIA) fluxes and instrumental climate data to identify drivers for environmental change. Two functional traits of testate amoebae, mixotrophy and the tendency to integrate xenogenic mineral matter in test construction, were quantified to infer possible effects of AIA flux on testate amoeba presence. Age-depth models showed the cores each covered at least the last ~315 years, with some spanning the last millennium. Testate amoeba assemblages were likely affected by permafrost development in two of the peatlands, yet the most important shift in assemblages was detected after 1960 CE. This shift represents a significant apparent lowering of water tables in four out of five cores, with a mean drop of ~15 cm. Over the last 50 years, assemblages shifted towards more xerophilous taxa, a trend which was best explained by increasing Sphagnum s. Acutifolia and, to a lesser extent, mean summer temperature. This trend was most evident in the two cores from the sites located farthest away from the ABS region. AIA flux variations did not show a clear effect on mineral-agglutinating taxa, nor on S. s. Acutifolia presence. We therefore suggest the drying trend was forced by the establishment of S. s. Acutifolia, driven by enhanced productivity following regional warming. Such recent apparent drying of peatlands, which may only be reconstructed by appropriate indicators combined with high chronological control, may affect vulnerability to future burning and promote emissions of CO2
Impact of the Little Ice Age cooling and 20th century climate change on peatland vegetation dynamics in central and northern Alberta using a multi-proxy approach and high-resolution peat chronologies
No full textNorthern boreal peatlands are major terrestrial sinks of organic carbon and these ecosystems, which are highly sensitive to human activities and climate change, act as sensitive archives of past environmental change at various timescales. This study aims at understanding how the climate changes of the last 1000 years have affected peatland vegetation dynamics in the boreal region of Alberta in western Canada. Peat cores were collected from five bogs in the Fort McMurray region (56â57° N), at the southern limit of sporadic permafrost, and two in central Alberta (53° N and 55° N) outside the present-day limit of permafrost peatlands. The past changes in vegetation communities were reconstructed using detailed plant macrofossil analyses combined with high-resolution peat chronologies (14C, atmospheric bomb-pulse14C,210Pb and cryptotephras). Peat humification proxies (C/N, H/C, bulk density) and records of pH and ash content were also used to improve the interpretation of climate-related vegetation changes. Our study shows important changes in peatland vegetation and physical and chemical peat properties during the Little Ice Age (LIA) cooling period mainly from around 1700 CE and the subsequent climate warming of the 20th century. In some bogs, the plant macrofossils have recorded periods of permafrost aggradation during the LIA with drier surface conditions, increased peat humification and high abundance of ericaceous shrubs and black spruce (Picea mariana). The subsequent permafrost thaw was characterized by a short-term shift towards wetter conditions (Sphagnum sect. Cuspidata) and a decline in Picea mariana. Finally, a shift to a dominance of Sphagnum sect. Acutifolia (mainly Sphagnum fuscum) occurred in all the bogs during the second half of the 20th century, indicating the establishment of dry ombrotrophic conditions under the recent warmer and drier climate conditions
Tribunals Imitating Courts - Foolish Flattery or Sound Policy?
No full textIn his 2004 Horace E Read Memorial Lecture, David Mullan assesses the impact of the due process explosion. To what extent has the evolution of Canadian law (both statutory and common) in the domain of procedural fairness been responsible for the phenomenon of excessive judicialization of the administrative process? Has the increase in the number of decision-makers subject to the obligation of procedural fairness and the growth in the parallels between tribunal and court processes affected adversely the interests of the administrative justice system and the public that it is meant to serve? The author suggests that there is a basis for this concern. He also argues that one potentially profitable way of dealing with it is for tribunals to recognize that they do not always have to function in the same way procedurally for all matters coming before them for resolution. While some tribunals have accepted this and make provision in their rules for variegated procedures depending on context, the author contends that the time may now have come to legislate for this possibility in the manner of the 1981 Model State Administrative Procedure Act
Carbon and nitrogen accumulation rates in ombrotrophic peatlands of central and northern Alberta, Canada, during the last millennium
No full textNorthern peatlands sequester carbon (C) and nitrogen (N) over millennia, at variable rates that depend on climate, environmental variables and anthropogenic activity. The ombrotrophic peatlands of central and northern Alberta (Canada) have developed under variable climate conditions during the last hundreds to thousands of years, while in the course of the twentieth century, some regions were also likely subjected to anthropogenic disturbance. We aimed to quantify peat C and N accumulation rates for the last millennium from seven peatlands to estimate the relative influence of climate and anthropogenic disturbance on C accumulation dynamics. Peatlands have accumulated C at an average rate of 25.3 g C m−2 year−1 over the last millennium. Overall, climate was likely a major factor as, on average, highest apparent rates of C accumulation were found around 1100 CE, during the warmer Medieval Climate Anomaly, with lowest rates during the Little Ice Age, around 1750 CE. Local factors, such as disturbance, played a role in C sequestration at the site scale. The average N accumulation rate was 0.55 g N m−2 year−1, with high inter- and intra-site variability. In general, N accumulation mirrored patterns in C sequestration for peat deposited pre-1850 CE. However, higher N accumulation rates observed after 1850 CE, averaging 0.94 g N m−2 year−1, were not correlated with C accumulation. Moreover, some of the historically strongly accumulating sites may have become less efficient in sequestering C, and vice versa. All seven sites showed a marked decrease in δ15N when comparing pre- and post-1850 timeframes, consistent with increasing post-1850 N additions from an atmospheric source, likely biological N fixation. Overall, N was not a driving factor for C accumulation
Caregiving Stress, Coping Strategies, and Health Outcomes: Results from the REACH II Study
No full textThe objective of this study was to understand CGs of PwD use of social support and religious and spiritual coping as coping mechanisms and potential impacts on physical and psychological outcomes, in line with the Stress Process Model (Pearlin, Menaghan, Lieberman, & Mullan, 1981).Center for GerontologyDepartment of Human Developmen
The Underrepresentation of Asian Americans in Professional American Sports
No full textThere are very few Asian-American athletes in professional American sports. This issue is multi-faceted ant, thus, the solution involves numerous nuances that require study. In the end, there are no simple solutions, but it is the author’s intent to present several theories which may be used to explain the perceived underrepresentation of Asian-Americans in American sports. Many successful Asian-American athletes have, in fact, been omitted from this thesis because this paper is focuses on athletes who were involved with the American sports of baseball, football, and basketball. The author focuses mostly on Japanese descendants due, mostly, to the phenomenal success that this group has had in assimilating into both American society and sports. The author also focuses on male athletes
Roncarelli v. Duplessis and Damages for Abuse of Power: For What Did It Stand in 1959 and For What Does It Stand in 2009?
No full textToday, Roncarelli v. Duplessis is most celebrated for the contributions that Justice Rand’s judgment in particular made to a rule of law—based conception of the exercise of discretionary power. However, from a contemporary perspective, the Supreme Court of Canada’s decision was seen not only as another significant judicial reining in of the Duplessis government’s treatment of Jehovah’s Witnesses, but also as an important development in the law governing governmental liability for abuse of power.In this paper, the author explores the latter dimension of the judgment with a view to establishing the grounds on which the Court found Duplessis personally liable in damages to Roncarelli, and the extent to which it transcended the particular provision on which liability was based (article 1053 of the Civil Code of Lower Canada) and had application at common law. He also evaluates the subsequent impact of this aspect of the judgment. How have later courts read the judgment’s articulation of the principles of delictual liability, and what are the current principles on which the liability of state actors for abuse of power are based? Here too, the author concludes that the current state of the law is closer to that espoused by Justice Rand than the bases on which the other members of the majority predicated liability.De nos jours, le jugement Roncarelli c. Duplessis, et celui du juge Rand en particulier, est surtout reconnu pour sa contribution à une conception de l’exercice du pouvoir discrétionnaire basée sur la primauté du droit. Toutefois, d’un point de vue contemporain, la décision de la Cour suprême du Canada constitue non seulement un moyen judiciaire de contrer le traitement réservé aux Témoins de Jéhovah par le gouvernement Duplessis, mais aussi un développement important du droit sur la responsabilité gouvernementale envers les abus de pouvoir.Dans cet essai, l’auteur explore cette dernière dimension du jugement afin d’établir les motifs pour lesquels la Cour a tenu Duplessis personnellement responsable des dommages occasionnés à Roncarelli. L’auteur examine aussi dans quelle mesure la Cour a transcendé l’article sur lequel reposait la responsabilité (l’article 1053 du Code civil du Bas Canada) et qui était également applicable en common law. De plus, l’auteur évalue l’impact subséquent de cet aspect du jugement. Comment les cours ultérieures ont-elles interprété la formulation, dans le jugement, des principes de responsabilité délictuelle ? Sur quels principes la responsabilité des acteurs étatiques envers les abus de pouvoir est-elle actuellement basée ? Ici encore, l’auteur conclut que l’état actuel du droit se rapproche plus de la vision épousée par le juge Rand pour fonder la responsabilité que de celle des autres juges ayant rendu l’opinion majoritaire
The State of Judicial Scrutiny of Public Contracting in New Zealand and Canada
No full textThis article evaluates the varying ways in which the courts of New Zealand and Canada respond to arguments that government procurement exercises are subject to the principles and remedies of public law. While conceding that context is critical and that there are many, often competing considerations that are relevant in the evaluation of such arguments, the author contends that the courts in both countries should at least on occasion be open to the availability of public law remedies for misfired government procurement exercises, and, more importantly, whether by judicial review or civil action, to the deployment of public law principles in the assessment of the procedural and substantive components of government procurement. More generally, the author warns against the movement in both countries in the direction of the assimilation of public procurement within existing principles and remedies of private tendering law
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